Chapter Spotlight: From Tennis Courts to the Corner Office

Brian Hill’s career has taken many sharp turns. He started as a mechanical engineer in the aerospace industry, then spent nearly 30 years as a construction general contractor, 11 more years as a JATC coordinator, and now is the Executive Vice President for Tri-County SMACNA in Ventura, California.

Brian Hill, Tri-County SMACNA Executive Vice President (left); Todd Henard, Custom Industrial Sheet Metal (center); the late Stan Capelli, former head of Tri-County SMACNA (right).

One of the biggest influences in his career was his wife’s decision to play tennis. 

“We joined a tennis club, and that’s where Diana met Sue Capelli, Stan Capelli’s wife,” Hill says. “The wives started talking, then I met Stan, and we started talking, too.” Stan was also in construction, and they quickly meshed. “At the time, I was a general contractor, and I needed a mechanical contractor, so I hired Stan to do a big project for me.” The project went well, and Capelli became Hill’s mechanical and sheet metal contractor. “Between working together and our wives, we became very good friends as couples.” 

In 2012, Capelli sold his company, Environmental Heating and Air Conditioning, and accepted the position of executive vice president for Tri-County SMACNA. That decision could have ended his partnership with Hill, but ironically, it brought them even closer together. 

About two years into Capelli’s stint at Tri-County SMACNA, the JATC was struggling. “They had gone through a couple of training coordinators, and they had bad luck for quite a few years,” Hill says. “In 2014, the board decided to look outside the normal mold. Stan talked me into leaving my business and taking over the apprenticeships, so I did.” 

After being an aerospace industry mechanical engineer and then spending 30 years as a construction general contractor, followed by 11 more years as a JATC coordinator, Brian Hill is now Executive Vice President of Tri-County SMACNA. 

Tapping a general contractor to run a JATC was an unconventional choice, but Capelli knew Hill had the skills they needed to rebuild the program. “Stan talked to the business manager and told him about my background,” Hill says. “They usually bring in guys who were good journeymen, even good instructors, but they don’t have any experience running a business, and that’s what JATC coordinators are doing. As much as they’re training, they’re also running a business. They’re responsible for budgets and insurance and attorneys and board meetings, a lot of things that are not related to sheet metal work itself. I knew how to run a business, so I was able to step in and get up to speed on the financials. My biggest hurdle was the curriculum, but the fact that I was a contractor and an engineer made it easy to move into that role. Stan was on my board, and we turned the program around. We really made it something, with a lot of help from the iTi.” 

Hill secured federal grants to update the JATC’s two schools in Ventura and Santa Maria, grants that required extra work and experience with federal timelines and paperwork. “The iTi offered a grant for a coordinator subsidy, so I hired another person,” Hill says. He didn’t have to look far to find qualified help, because his son-in-law, John Kroon, had graduated from the Naval Academy with a degree in engineering, then handled the procurement and funding for a tank division. “When he got out of the Marines, John worked for a contractor out here, Superior Duct Fabrication. Then the subsidy came along, and John already had a ton of background in dealing with federal funding. He’s an engineer, and he had been in the industry a bit, so he was a good fit to bring into the apprenticeship.” 

Hill and his son-in-law would still be working together at the JATC, if personal tragedy hadn’t propelled another career change. “About a year ago, Stan Capelli got sick, and he ended up with cancer,” Hill says. “Stan was a real fighter and a strong guy. We did a lot of physical stuff together. He was healthy. We thought the cancer was treatable. The doctors thought so, too; everybody did.” But everybody was wrong. “I guess it was the end of August or early September when Stan called me up and said he needed to retire to concentrate on his health.” 

He asked Hill to consider replacing him at the chapter. “Of course I agreed. I wanted to do whatever would help him and Sue. We scheduled our first meeting to take over, and Stan passed away that day. I never had my kickoff meeting with him to teach me about the job. He was 62 when he passed.”

Hill’s son-in-law had been working at the JATC for about two years by then. “I slid over here to Tri-County SMACNA in October, and I put John in my place at the JATC,” Hill says. “We hired another person to replace him.”

Stan Capelli’s position wasn’t the only vacancy at the chapter. His wife Sue had managed the chapter office for years. “When Stan passed, Sue didn’t want to work anymore. She was just done,” Hill says. Fortunately, Diana Hill had experience as the office manager in Hill’s former contracting business. “My wife offered to come out of retirement and take Sue’s place, and Sue was able to train her. I think it was as much therapy for Sue as it was training for Diana.” 

The last year has been shocking, but Tri-County SMACNA is in good hands, with generous support from sister chapters. “Everybody’s been patient with us,” Hill says. “National SMACNA has been great, Cal SMACNA has been great, and SMACNA  Southern California has been a wealth of information. Bay Area SMACNA has been good to us. The business manager at Local 104 has gone out of his way to help me develop a relationship with his key people. Everybody’s helping us succeed.”